Tour de France Mountain Bike Jump

Maybe I’m turning into (or already am) a grumpy old man, but the video of EcnoRage planning and then jumping Chris Froome in this year’s Tour de France on a downhill bike was a douche bag move.

It obviously it showed no respect for the riders – treating them as nothing more than a bus in an Evel Knievel jump. Also, look at the safety issues.

What would have happened if the jump went badly? The mountain bike’s wheel had hit a passing team car with bikes on top? What would have happened if the ramp collapsed? Do you think Team Sky signed off on this guy jumping over their million dollar investment?

It’s not like jumps go badly. A gust of wind or a slight case of nerves by the guy jumping and BOOM, it all goes wrong.

Looking at the age of the EcnoRage guys I suspect none of them have an engineering degree. Instead their qualifications are probably owning a chainsaw and a pick-up truck.

I hope the French authorities at least talk to these guys, issue some sort of warning, and remind them that they can gamble with their own lives, but don’t involve the lives of others. I’m sure Froome didn’t sign off on this stunt.

Admittedly, jumping the peloton has become something of a tradition, but that doesn’t mean it’s a good thing.

2 comments

“Maybe I’m turning into (or already am) a grumpy old man” I guess you are… The risks these MTB guys take is significantly smaller than the downhill decents if the TdF riders on their 23 mm wide tires, 7kg carbon bikes and zero.zero protection clothing. In addition, these riders probably take a beer in the evening instead of other ‘goodies’ 😉

The riders and the trail builders would have spent many hours making sure the run and ramp were spot on, this is what they do, it wasn’t going to randomly collapse. These guys would have known exactly what they were doing and the rider would have practiced the jump many times before the live run. In terms of what would have happened if there was a crash well nearly all riders including amateurs have multi million pound liability insurance.